


One Year after Another

by idc_chan



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, alternate universe: mcu post infinity war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 14:05:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19702888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idc_chan/pseuds/idc_chan
Summary: Misery loves company seems like such a platitude- until there isn't much company left.





	One Year after Another

**Author's Note:**

> You tecnically don't need to know anything about the mcu for this to make sense- but if you know nothing and want to, see the end notes. Also solid blame to Col3bri and AzzleDazzle for egging me on.

It happens quickly, he’s on the ice practicing when it happens, like he always is. Like they always are- were. One moment he’s skating, practicing his triple axle, muttering because while he lands it,it just isn’t at good as the pig’s, even though the pig can’t jump. He can jump, Yuri admits to himself and only himself. Especially the triple axle. It’s beautiful to behold, the pig is all perfect angles, Yuri knows he’ll touch the ice so softly for the landing — and then the rink is covered in ash. It’s the sort of situation where you might expect mass panic. But it happens so quickly and at the end, only he and Georgi Popovich are left standing.

“What the fuck?” Yuri says and he means it to sound angry- but he sounds small and scared, his voice fading as it echoes through the rink.

Georgi stares at him. “What happened?” he asks, his voice more steady.

“How the fuck should I know?” Yuri answers. He skates off the rink, fishes for his cell phone, panic rising in his chest. Grandpa doesn’t answer the phone- Georgi is still staring- still stuck on the ice. It’d be funny- how he seems paralyzed, except, if Yuri wasn’t shucking his skates, throwing on his shoes without bothering to tie them and racing outside muttering “Please, no, no,” as he calls his grandfather again- he might be doing the same thing. He does do the same thing when he enters the street and finds it also covered in ash.

  
**Year One**

No one knows exactly what happened. There are rumors and rumors and rumors and mostly what everyone knows is that life goes on. Missing half the world causes problems. Yuri stands in line a lot longer for instance- there are less people that need to eat- but there are less people to make food, or to run cash registers, or to design his costumes or any number of things. There are less people to compete with.

He wins every competition that first year. It feels hollow. There’s no JJ, no Victor, no Yuuri, no Michele, and winning against Emil and Georgi seems- it’s too easy. But he needs to eat and skating has always been his livelihood. Even though half of world is utterly, irrevocably gone, the other half must go on. So he goes on. He waits in lines, he curses when the electricity is out again. He refuses to feel it when a competition is canceled because there aren’t enough survivors to make it work.

“I’d like to be your coach,” Georgi says one night. He’s thinner, his eyes sunk deep, his makeup applied halfheartedly. “I mean- I’ve basically been,”

“Yah, yah,” Yuri interrupts. “Whatever.” It’s a connection, a tenuous one. It’s someone he knows from before. Someone who understands what he’s lost. It’s something.

**Year Two**

Yuri stands on the podium, gold medal swinging from his neck. It’s the world championship- again. Three more to go, he thinks, and technically he’s beaten Victor’s record. No one comments on the fact that he’s crying during the Russian national anthem. No one comments that he has the sniffles during the banquet. People do that nowadays. Everyone has lost someone, is the thing. Some more than others- but no one has escaped unscathed. It’s just good manners not to point it out all the time.

Georgi puts a hand on his shoulder, squeezes. Yuri leans in, lets himself take what comfort he can. “Shut up,” he mutters, even though Georgi hasn’t said a word.

“They’d have been proud of you today,” Georgi answers.

Yuri glowers at the wall. “My triple axle still needs work,” he mutters. Georgi just squeezes his shoulder again.

  
**Year Three**

“There is no fucking way in hell,” Yuri says, “that I am letting you do my makeup.”

Georgi stands in front of him, supplies in hand- brushes and palettes and lipsticks and who knows what garish madness he has in mind?

“There isn’t anyone else,” Georgi says. He sets the supplies down on the counter. Bulbs flicker around the mirror.

“Look, I remember my senior debut,” Yuri shouts. “No fucking way.”

Georgi has changed- who hasn’t? He crouches down and pulls Yuri into a hug. “I miss them too,” he says. Yuri does not sob into Georgi’s chest. He doesn’t pull him closer and they don’t remain that way for endless minutes, grief washing over them. In the end- Yuri can’t keep his eyes dry enough for the makeup to be all that effective. It doesn’t matter much, he still wins. Another gold medal with no meaning. He wonders if this was what Victor felt, all those years ago.

  
**Year Four**

Every year he thinks it will be easier. And maybe sometimes it is. The world, in general, is beginning to function more efficiently. There is always plenty of food, plenty of shelter. He and Georgi move into Victor and Yuuri’s old apartment. It just kind of happens one day, and it’s nice to have someone to talk to. It’s nice to wake up in the morning and see someone else. It’s nice to share meals and chores and sometimes grief.

Sometimes Georgi has to drag him out of bed, force him to practice. Those days can be dark- questions of “why me? Why am I alive?” run through everyone’s heads. Yuri doesn’t deal with it very well. If he’s not refusing to get up- he’s kicking and screaming and making a fuss. And Georgi waits for him to come around- a strange fount of patience. Georgi, too, has changed- he smiles less, he’s not dramatic, he hasn’t a girlfriend since it happened.

“You’ve helped me so much,” Yuri says one night over dinner, another gold medal lying uselessly on the kitchen counter. “How can I help you?”

Georgi gestures to their home. “This is enough,” he says.

**Year Five**

It happens just as quickly- the world cup is in Russia- so he’s on the ice, just the same as five years ago- though this time it’s mid program. A tribute to the fallen, he’d called it. It’s an extremely emotional program- he’s ramping up to the final jump sequence when the ice is suddenly packed. It’s filled with people and it takes years of hard won skill not to topple onto the ice.

The pig is there and Victor and Yakov and Milla and everyone. His heart jumps. This doesn’t happen- this isn’t how the world works. But then again, people aren’t supposed to just ash into thin air either. He trembles and inches his way to the boards, leaning against them, tears spilling down his cheeks.

“Yurio,” Victor says, “what happened? Why are you so upset? Your triple axle was not that bad.”

And like that- somehow Yuri knows- for them no time has passed. “Oh hell,” he whispers.

Yuuri is more observant. “Uh…Yurio, how are you so much older?”

Yuri can’t help it. All he can do is laugh. He catches Georgi’s eye, his coach is rushing through the much more crowded rink to meet him. “I have no idea how to feel,” Yuri admits.

Georgi places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes.

**Author's Note:**

> In the mcu a villain snaps his fingers wiping out half of all life in the universe. Five years later a hero snaps his and (almost) everyone comes back.


End file.
